New Beginnings
by perpetualpathology
Summary: This is a little oneshot I imagined after reading spoilers for next week - if you don't want to hear the spoilers, I wouldn't read this story!


**Okay, I've been reading spoilers about next week so if you don't want anything ruined, I wouldn't read on if I were you! I don't know the ins and outs of everything of course so don't think that this storyline is going to be in any way similar to 'real' Holby, but this is how I imagine it to go :)**

* * *

For weeks, he had been looking forward to hearing those words: '_You are free to go_'. And yet the day hadn't turned out to be as satisfying or as joyous as he had hoped because his first day back on Darwin had reminded him of those who hadn't spoken up. His supposed 'friends' who he hoped would've been fighting his corner all the way, but instead they had cowered away from the attention because of one man who had a lot of power. When he'd left the magistrates court that morning, he'd felt like he could spit fire but from the moment he saw Jac Naylor getting a coffee with the powerful man down in Pulses, the day had gone downhill. He hadn't seen the woman – the one whom he thought he was going to turn a new page with – since that encounter but he hoped that when she'd finished her shift he would be allowed to return to her apartment to see his daughter. He'd not had a good shift at all and so Elliot had told him to finish early but he couldn't go anywhere, not without seeing his daughter first. He was sat in the locker room, just waiting for the clock to reach 5 o'clock when he knew the mother of his child would come and change out of her scrubs to go home to their daughter. But the clock had only just reached 4pm when the door creaked open.

"I hear about your outburst earlier." Jac begun calmly as she leant in the doorway of the locker room. It wasn't surprising given that almost the entire ward had heard his outburst in the very room that he was sat in, to Mo, Adele and Elliot about how difficult it was for him to deal with being accused of murder, and locked away for something that he didn't do whilst everyone else pretended like nothing had happened.

"And what? You think a couple of snide remarks are going to make me feel better?" Jonny asked with no intent of sounding accusative, but there was a tone of anger in his voice that he couldn't hide.

"You might find it hard to believe – well, actually given what you think of me, you might not – but… I have been arrested for murder too." She informed him slowly.

"Oh give over Jac–"

"Honestly, you can ask Elliot if you don't believe me." Jac stated as she closed the door behind her and then sat on the wooden bench next to him. "Alan Clooney. He was a patient of mine, then six months later, he was found in the hospital stairwell and he'd been stabbed with a pair of surgical scissors, straight through his heart."

"Blimey, you aren't making this up." Jonny whispered at the beginning of what he assumed to be a ridiculous misunderstanding so he turned to face her and paid close attention.

"I was arrested for questioning–"

"But what motive could you possibly have for murdering a patient?" He protested.

"It's complicated."

"Jac?" Jonny prompted.

"He… He attacked me on hospital grounds okay? I never wanted to see him again, said some pretty condemning things about him and once the police heard about what I said, I was their main suspect."

"He attacked you? How?"

"It doesn't matter, it was years ago now." Jac stated. "The point is, I know what it's like. Nearly all of my colleagues believed that I'd done it so I understand how you're feeling at the moment. Like there's no one in the world on your side even though you know there's no way that you'd ever be capable of killing someone when you're in the profession of saving lives." She explained.

"I just don't understand how– or rather _why _people doubted _me_ of all people." He admitted helplessly. "There's not a bad bone in my body."

"But you can understand people doubting me." Jac concluded.

"That's not what I meant–"

"I know what you meant." Jac sighed.

"But how did you cope? You obviously managed because you're still here, I just don't think I can take another day of people steering clear of me down corridors so they don't have to go anywhere near an accused murderer, or their pitying looks. Even Mo and Adele aren't like they used to be with me, they just don't seem comfortable around me anymore."

"I kept my head down for a while and things settled down."

"But that's just it, I can't sit in my office and get on with some paperwork because most of my job is working on the ward."

"You make not having endless piles of paperwork a bad thing." Jac quipped. "Just hang in there, for Emma. It'll get better. Your first day out is bound to be tough and tonight, I'll let you have the delightful task of giving our little madam her bath."

"She hates baths just as much as you do." Jonny chuckled quietly as he hung his head in his hands.

"Well it's not my fault that our clever 14 month old worked out that taking a bath is like bathing in your own filth and defeats the object of having a wash." Jac replied innocently.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?" She frowned.

"Earlier, you said Emma missed me and I asked if you did too but I didn't get a proper answer because Mr Self was there. But he's well out of range now so come on, did you miss me?" He asked curiously but he sighed when she changed the subject without even acknowledging his question.

"Did you mean what you said last week? You said about roses above the door, and that I make you happy."

"I meant every word Jac." Jonny confirmed.

"Right... Well I um, I'm due in theatre so I'd better go." She muttered as she rose to her feet and headed for the door so that she could escape before things got any more awkward between them.

* * *

"Nurse Maconie, I'm not going to tell you again. This is a very important patient for Holby so I'd appreciate it if you could allow another nurse to perform Mrs Maclin's obs." Guy said sternly as he stood at the nurses' station on the opposite side of the desk to the Scotsman.

"Mr Self, I'm the clinical nursing manager of this hospital – you can't find a better nurse within this hospital." Jonny argued as he gritted his teeth to prevent a full outburst in the centre of the ward but he felt a slight relief when Jac re-entered the ward with a look of determination in her eyes as though she wasn't going to let him be undermined.

"What're you doing?" She asked him quietly.

"Jac, Mrs Maclin's husband is–" Guy began before being interrupted.

"I know who he is." She declared.

"Well then you'll understand that–"

"That she needs to receive the best care possible and I know of no one more dedicated or more empathetic than Nurse Maconie." Jac said firmly.

"Jac, I thought we had the same goals." He frowned as he gingerly placed his hand on her hip. "I thought we had… us." He whispered confusedly.

"We have the same goals but the way that you're going, you're never going to attain 'Super Centre' status. Not without _the _best nurse you'll ever come across or your world class heart surgeon."

"I'm sorry?" He frowned.

"You'll have our resignations on your desk by the end of the day." She snapped before she turned on her heel, grabbed Jonny's wrist and dragged him towards her office. Once she was in the safe haven, she ran her hands through her long, perfectly straightened hair and Jonny closed the door behind them.

"I cannot believe what you just did!" Jonny laughed.

"So you're not mad?"

"Jac, the way I was going I was either going to get fired or resign myself." Jonny stated. "I won't be able to support you or Emma financially–"

"I've got that covered, don't worry." Jac sighed before he sat down on the white leather seat behind the desk that had been hers for years.

"You've got a plan, haven't you." Jonny concluded from the very calm expression she had on her face, alongside the small smile of relief that a burden had been lifted – she was no longer under the reign of the man who hadn't satisfied her needs. Jonny on the other hand, was all she really wanted alongside Emma of course.

"You know this battle between St James's and Holby for the funding to become a Super Centre?"

"Yeah."

"Well, both hospitals want to have the best chance of getting that status and that means that they want the best staff possible."

"And they've offered you a job?"

"A couple of weeks ago, they offered me a consultant's position. Last week, they upped it to Clinical lead of their cardiothoracic ward and I'm sure if I make a few calls, they'll gladly give you a job if I take up their offer. We wouldn't have to move – you'd just have to move into my place and bring the rest of Emma's things over – but we'd be away from this place and we can make a fresh start. Or we could move if you want to, maybe into a bigger house and–"

"You know, you always ramble on when you get nervous." Jonny grinned. "Jac, that is the best thing I've heard in a very long time." Jonny declared. "And it's the right thing to do, for you, for me _and _for Emma."

"I'll email St James's tonight then." She smiled in the way that she hadn't done for a long time. "First, I'd better just print out my letter of resignation so I can leave it on Guy's desk on the way out."

"You've already written it." Jonny laughed as, after a couple of clicks of her mouse, the printer lit up and then a sheet of warm, inked paper rolled out of it.

"I've been thinking about leaving here for a while." She admitted. "And if I just change the signature at the bottom and the name of the job, yours is written too." She declared as she hit a few keys and then printed out another sheet.

"I'm sure Guy will love our almost identical letters of resignation." Jonny smirked as he took the second sheet, signed in the gap at the bottom and then put it into an envelope that Jac handed him from her desk draw.

"I know something that he'll love even more."

* * *

"Jac, what're you doing?" Jonny whispered frantically as the woman went up to the large wooden bookshelf in the CEO's office after placing her letter of resignation on his desk.

"That Scottish whiskey you used to have when we went to Albi's, it was this wasn't it?" She asked as she pulled away two short books and then took out a bottle of amber liquid from behind them.

"Loch Lomond, yeah." Jonny nodded confusedly.

"Well, then you can have a celebratory drink tonight, it's on Guy."

"You can't steal a bottle of 18 year old whiskey! That stuff is like £60 a bottle!" He laughed quietly as Jac slid the bottle into her handbag.

"And what's he going to do? Report it to the police that a bottle of alcohol was stolen from a neurosurgeon's office?" She asked rhetorically as she placed the two books back and then walked towards the door of the office. "If you like scotch, he's got some of that behind the books on anatomy." She informed him.

"I think we've got enough." Jonny chuckled as he placed his hand in the small of her back and eased her out of the office before he closed the door behind himself.

* * *

"You do realise she isn't going anywhere, right?" Jac asked as she stood behind the man who was leant in the doorway of his daughter's bedroom where the infant was safely tucked away in her cot, fast asleep and she had been for almost half an hour.

"I know, I just missed her." Jonny stated. "Every night that I was in that prison cell, I thought of you reading her a story until she fell asleep. But then I remembered that it was Jac Naylor that I was thinking about, so I imagined you sitting in the rocking chair with her in your arms, explaining something so sciencey and complicated in such detail to her because I know reading stories makes you feel uncomfortable." He explained as he put an arm around her shoulders.

"I've heard back from the CEO of St James's." Jac admitted.

"Already?"

"Yeah, he wants to speak to us on Monday so that we can discuss terms and hopefully sign a contract. And he says if we agree on something, we could start working straight away."

"This is going to be a new start for us." He beamed as he gave her shoulders a light squeeze. "Now, where did you put that whiskey?"

* * *

**I can't believe they're leaving next week :'( but at least we know Jac is returning after a few months when Rosie returns from her maternity leave. Anyway, thanks for reading my oneshot, please let me know what you think :)**


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